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International Journal of Language &... 2024Despite its potentially significant functional and emotional impact, acalculia is still too rarely assessed and managed by speech and language therapists. Research on...
BACKGROUND
Despite its potentially significant functional and emotional impact, acalculia is still too rarely assessed and managed by speech and language therapists. Research on the rehabilitation of numerical transcoding remains scarce in the literature and, despite positive results, presents a low level of evidence.
AIMS
The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a targeted rehabilitation of numerical transcoding in two patients suffering from a chronic secondary acalculia.
METHODS & PROCEDURES
Two post-brain injury females with secondary acalculia took part in a single-case experimental design with multiple baseline across subjects according to a three-phase experimental protocol: baseline involving global cognitive rehabilitation (5-7 measurements with randomized sequential introduction); targeted intervention (10 measurements); follow-up (2 immediate measurements and 1 month after the end of the intervention). Repeated outcome measures consisted of six lists composed of numbers of equivalent difficulty that were used alternately to assess numerical transcoding. We used a reverse digit span as a control measure to assess the specificity of the intervention. Rehabilitation lasted 5 weeks and consisted of errorless learning with colour cues, tables and number-words cards.
OUTCOMES & RESULTS
During baseline period involving global cognitive rehabilitation, transcoding scores remained unchanged. In contrast, there was a significant improvement in scores for both patients during the intervention phase targeting transcoding and maintenance of benefits 1-month post-intervention.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS
This study demonstrates that a specific rehabilitation targeting numerical transcoding following chronic secondary acalculia can be effective in improving transcoding skills.
WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS
What is already known on the subject Transcoding difficulties in patients with acalculia can cause a significant disability in everyday life activities. In secondary acalculia, rehabilitation of cognitive functions associated with number processing (attention, working memory, language) is not sufficient for improvement of transcoding. What this paper adds to existing knowledge An intervention specifically targeting numerical transcoding significantly and durably improves the skills of patients with chronic secondary acalculia. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Procedural error-free intervention using colour cueing, tables, cards with number-words, copy and repetition seems effective to improve transcoding skills in chronic acalculia.
Topics: Female; Humans; Dyscalculia; Research Design; Cognition; Memory, Short-Term; Language
PubMed: 37528503
DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.12942 -
Journal of Learning Disabilities 2024Children with mathematical difficulties need to spend more time than typically achieving children on solving even simple equations. Since these tasks already require a...
Children with mathematical difficulties need to spend more time than typically achieving children on solving even simple equations. Since these tasks already require a larger share of their cognitive resources, additional demands imposed by the need to switch between tasks may lead to a greater decline of performance in children with mathematical difficulties. We explored differential task switch costs with respect to switching between addition versus subtraction with a tablet-based arithmetic verification task and additional standardized tests in German elementary school children in Grades 1 to 4. Two independent studies were conducted. In Study 1, we assessed the validity of a newly constructed tablet-based arithmetic verification task in a controlled classroom-setting ( = 165). Then, effects of switching between different types of arithmetic operations on accuracy and response latency were analyzed through generalized linear mixed models in an online-based testing (Study 2; = 3,409). Children with mathematical difficulties needed more time and worked less accurately overall. They also exhibited a stronger performance decline when working in a task-switching condition, when working on subtraction (vs. addition) items and in operations with two-digit (vs. one-digit) operations. These results underline the value of process data in the context of assessing mathematical difficulties.
Topics: Humans; Child; Male; Female; Dyscalculia; Executive Function; Mathematical Concepts; Mathematics
PubMed: 37905535
DOI: 10.1177/00222194231204619 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2024[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1187785.].
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1187785.].
PubMed: 38445062
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1384448 -
The Journal of Neuroscience : the... Apr 2024Previous neuroimaging studies have offered unique insights about the spatial organization of activations and deactivations across the brain; however, these were not...
Previous neuroimaging studies have offered unique insights about the spatial organization of activations and deactivations across the brain; however, these were not powered to explore the exact timing of events at the subsecond scale combined with a precise anatomical source of information at the level of individual brains. As a result, we know little about the order of engagement across different brain regions during a given cognitive task. Using experimental arithmetic tasks as a prototype for human-unique symbolic processing, we recorded directly across 10,076 brain sites in 85 human subjects (52% female) using the intracranial electroencephalography. Our data revealed a remarkably distributed change of activity in almost half of the sampled sites. In each activated brain region, we found juxtaposed neuronal populations preferentially responsive to either the target or control conditions, arranged in an anatomically orderly manner. Notably, an orderly successive activation of a set of brain regions-anatomically consistent across subjects-was observed in individual brains. The temporal order of activations across these sites was replicable across subjects and trials. Moreover, the degree of functional connectivity between the sites decreased as a function of temporal distance between regions, suggesting that the information is partially leaked or transformed along the processing chain. Our study complements prior imaging studies by providing hitherto unknown information about the timing of events in the brain during arithmetic processing. Such findings can be a basis for developing mechanistic computational models of human-specific cognitive symbolic systems.
Topics: Humans; Female; Male; Adult; Brain; Young Adult; Brain Mapping; Electrocorticography
PubMed: 38485257
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2118-22.2024 -
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology Aug 2024A solid understanding of fractions is the cornerstone for acquiring proficiency with rational numbers and paves the way for learning advanced mathematical concepts such... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
A solid understanding of fractions is the cornerstone for acquiring proficiency with rational numbers and paves the way for learning advanced mathematical concepts such as algebra. Fraction difficulties limit not only students' educational and vocational opportunities but also their ability to solve everyday problems. Students who exit sixth grade with inadequate understanding of fractions may experience far-reaching repercussions that lead to lifelong avoidance of mathematics. This article presents the results of a randomized controlled trial focusing on the first two cohorts of a larger efficacy investigation aimed at building fraction sense in students with mathematics difficulties. Teachers implemented an evidence-informed fraction sense intervention (FSI) within their sixth-grade intervention classrooms. The lessons draw from research in cognitive science as well as mathematics education research. Employing random assignment at the classroom level, multilevel modeling revealed a significant effect of the intervention on posttest fractions scores after controlling for pretest fractions scores, working memory, vocabulary, proportional reasoning, and classroom attentive behavior. Students in the FSI group outperformed their counterparts in the control group, with noteworthy effect sizes on most fraction measures. Challenges associated with carrying out school-based intervention research are addressed.
Topics: Humans; Male; Female; Child; Schools; Mathematics; Students; Problem Solving; Dyscalculia
PubMed: 38718680
DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105954